02/11/2026
Is Your Dog A Math Wiz?
(Part 1 of a New Series) by Robin Lincoln
“Dog Math” posts on Instagram are funny and cute as dogs inform their guardians that splitting a treat in half does not equal 2 treats. Or, if 1 of their toys goes under the couch, they then say they have 0 toys. But are dogs really able to count?
Let’s begin with what counting is and how we can determine if an animal can count. There are several mental processes looked at when studying if a species has the ability to count. First is the concept of Relative Numbers which means can an individual distinguish between “more versus less”. The Approximate Number System, ANS, is the cognitive ability used to approximate the size of a group of items. It is used to do the reasoning in distinguishing more versus less. For animals, this comes into play in circumstances such as an individual choosing the larger portion from 2 piles of food, or a group of individuals deciding if their group is large enough to win a fight against another group over a desired resource. Functional MRIs (fMRIs) have shown evidence that many dogs do show activation in the parietotemporal region of the brain for ANS. In fact, many mammals do, including humans, so there is some thought that this may be an evolutionary characteristic in mammals.
Another mental process of counting is the concept of Absolute Numbers. Humans understand counting to be identifying the exact number of items in a group of objects. Furthermore, we can understand that a set of 3 pencils has the same number of items as a set of 3 cars. This comprehension is the cognitive process of understanding Absolute Numbers. We also understand that the symbol 3 represents the exact number of items in each group regardless of what the items are. For other species, testing this comes with many challenges. Much more research is needed to determine if dogs can count as we think of it, but here is some of what we do know.
In one study dogs really didn’t do well in discriminating the difference in pile size for anything above 1 versus None (0) with the exception of a rough haired collie named Sedona. She could distinguish quantity differences way above 1 versus 4 items at above chance levels. Still, there are other parameters that we need to think about in a case like Sedona. As a sheep herding breed, did her superior visual perception of volume contribute to greater success compared to other breeds? Another consideration is did her practicing many trials and previous training make her more successful? Or…. did she actually demonstrate a cognitive ability for counting?
In other studies, it was found that dogs could best distinguish quantities and choose the larger number of items when the difference in the number of items in the piles was larger. For example, it was easier for them to choose the larger pile in a case of 1 versus 4 items than it was choosing the larger pile in 2 versus 3 items. This became even more evident when the number of items increased. They could not distinguish, beyond a level of chance, the larger number when one pile had 8 items and the other had 9. It appears that when the number of items in both piles increases and they are close in magnitude, the dogs could no longer determine which was larger.
So, there are challenges in determining if dogs can count in the manner we humans count. Are they dogs using learned cues, or are they using visual cues, or are they using scenting cues if food is involved, etc? There are many variables that need to be isolated in the experiments in order to determine what their numerosity ability is. Hence, much more research is needed with dogs. Primates, pigeons and other species have been more extensively studied to date, and some have shown great capacity in numerosity.
In conclusion, it appears that dogs can approximate more versus less in certain cases and some can be taught to match the quantity of items set on a tray to a corresponding chart with and identical number of items. Evidence also shows their brains have mechanisms enabling them to do some estimation. So, while the researchers continue to study dogs and counting, there are some fun number games we can play with dogs and teach them new skills. In the meantime, I suggest you don’t count on your dog to help you compute your taxes come April.
More on the games you can play next time in Part 2 of Is Your Dog A Math Wiz?
